'Moron' who lit flare in for shock, says promoter

Peter Vincent

When a young male fan smuggled flares into the Soundwave music festival at Homebush on Sunday, then ignited them at two different stages, he had no idea his fellow fans wouldn't share his enthusiasm for DIY pyrotechnics.

Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah – not a man to be messed with in good times, just ask Joel Madden or Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, both of whom publically felt Maddah's wrath of late – says the "moron" who set off the flares is about to handed over to Police.

"There were 75,000 people at what was a great show at it took one dickhead to ruin the day for everyone. Thanks to smartphones, we've had at least a dozen people send us photos of this moron’s face and his name and details.

"But just to demonstrate his complete stupidity he's gone home and bragged about it on Facebook.

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"We'll be passing all those details onto Police.

"Soundwave is such a strong community that people help each other out more than security or event staff can.

"Personally I think he should be arrested just for the sailor cap.’’

Initial reports made by other media yesterday that a girl had been so badly burned by one of the flares that she had undergone emergency surgery appear to be incorrect. Fairfax contacted Concord Hospital , the nearest hospital with a burns unit. But the hospital had no record of such a patient. St Johns Ambulance did however tell Fairfax three people were treated for minor burns, who then returned to watch the festival.

Maddah's own Twitter feed was an early source of the reports: late on Sunday night he tweeted that a girl had been "disfigured" by a flare.

"I was really upset, I was losing my mind through tiredness and I was told those things burn at 180 degrees and that it touched anyone it would disfigure them. Thankfully I was wrong about it. We've heard that she's ok and had a few stitches."

Maddah says Soundwave security staff will receive training to identify and confiscate flares before the three further festivals to come, in Melbourne on Friday, Adelaide on Saturday and Perth on Monday.

‘‘Security staff have been looking for knives or alcohol to this point so this adds a new dimension. The average security guard wouldn’t have recognised a flare... we’ll be adding this as another item in security briefings.’’